1. Technical Field
The disclosed technology and embodiments relate to the field of creating social spaces for sharing experiences from watching and/or listening to recorded audio or audio/visual information between remotely-located audience members.
2. Background Art
People socialize within a shared social space. Often this socialization occurs in the context of listening to music, watching a television program, or watching a movie within the home. Family traditions can be created, for example, by the sharing of popcorn around a favorite television program on a Sunday night. Often, a favorite movie on VCR or DVD can be watched. The fellowship engendered by this experience changes when some of the members of the social group move away or otherwise become remote from the heart of the group. This can happen, for example, when the group is a family and a child leaves to go to college. It can also happen when a group of friends graduates from college or high school. Often the person who is no longer able to be present misses the group and vice versa.
FIG. 1 illustrates a first representation of a prior art social space 100 showing a program time axis 101 extending from a program start point 103 to a program stop time 105. In this example, a first audience member 107 and a second audience member 109 are sharing the experience of watching the program in real time while the experiential data stream representing the program is being recorded as it is received at the same location (thus, local audience members—the viewers or listeners—are co-present). The playback position/playback vector 111 indicates the local audience member's playback position in the experiential data stream and the playback vector (direction and velocity). In this figure, an available content portion 113 indicates the amount of the experiential data stream that has been received and recorded while an unavailable content portion 115 indicates the amount of the experiential data stream that has not yet been received. In this figure, the local audience members experience the audiovisual representation of the experiential data stream as the data is received. This figure corresponds to two people in the same location watching a broadcast television program (or listening to an audio program) while recording the broadcast material on an audio or video tape or by use of a digital video recorder. Each local audience member can comment about, or react to, the program to the other local audience member as the program is being experienced. While the home is an example setting of this shared social space, other examples include Sports bars, local multi-player video games, audio/visual rooms in rest homes, community centers, dorm rooms, et cetera.
FIG. 2 illustrates a representation of separate prior art social spaces 200 showing a first program experience 201 and a delayed first program experience 203. The first program experience 201 has a first program start point 205 and the delayed first program experience 203 has a delayed first program start point 207. A first audience member 209 and a second audience member 211 are in a shared social space, and in the case where the experiential data stream is a video program, watching the experiential data stream at a first playback position/playback vector 213. A third audience member 215 and a fourth audience member 217 are watching the experiential data stream at a second playback position/playback vector 219. The figure also includes a real-time axis 221. The situation shown in FIG. 2 often happens, for example, when the delayed first program experience 203 and the first program experience 201 are provided over different networks (for example one provided over a broadcast network and the other provided over a cable network). This situation results in a program displacement 223 that can be small or large depending on the networks. The first program experience 201 includes a first program time axis 225 and the delayed first program experience 203 includes a delayed program time axis 227. Thus, two people watching the same program at the same point on the real-time axis 221 are viewing the experiential data stream from different points on the program time axis. A corresponding playback position 229 is included in FIG. 2 to indicate the corresponding position of the first playback position/playback vector 213 in the delayed first program experience 203 and thus indicate that each shared social space is viewing a different portion of the experiential data stream. Both FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 have no as-yet-unviewed data recorded.
FIG. 3 illustrates a third prior art social space 300. Again, we show a first program experience 301 and a second program experience 303. Each program experience being substantially the same and either completely recorded (not shown) or partially recorded using the previously described symbology. The first program experience 301 has a first program start point 305 and the second program experience 303 has a second program start point 307 that is substantially the same as the first program start point 305. FIG. 3 shows the experiential data stream that provides the subject matter that can be independently navigated by the first audience member 309 through the first program experience 301 (represented by a first playback position/playback vector 313) and being independently navigated by the second audience member 311 through the second program experience 303 (represented by a second playback position/playback vector 315). No social space is created when the two viewers independently navigate through the first program experience 301 and the second program experience 303 such as by two people separately watching a DVD or recorded program on a DVR. FIG. 3 shows that the first program experience 301 is not completely recorded, but has recorded some as-yet-unviewed data (as does the second program experience 303).
While the two audience members are not cooperating or communicating about the program experience, no social space is developed. Notice however, that the two audience members can cooperate to create the third prior art social space 300 through communication using a communication means 317 such as for example, the telephone system, wireless communication, or computer-assisted communication such as an e-mail system, instant message system, or other full- or half-duplex computer assisted communication mechanism. Thus, one audience member can coordinate navigation with the other audience member by, for example, communicating that they are pausing the program with the hope that the other audience member will also pause. The audience members can also align their playback by using countdowns, recognition of when particular scene breaks happen in the program et cetera. These methods are all clumsy. FIG. 3 also illustrates a real-time axis 321 and a first program time axis 325 and a second program time axis 327. For the third prior art social space 300 to be established and coherent, the first playback position/playback vector 313 and the second playback position/playback vector 315 need to be in approximately the same position in the respective program experiences, be on essentially the same position on the real-time axis 321 and have a means for the audience members to communicate substantially as if the audience members were all local.
Some of the background art includes interactive television, instant messaging systems, remote video conferencing, digital video, digital audio, network and computer technologies.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 6,519,771, System for Interactive Chat Without a Keyboard, by S. E. Zenith, filed Dec. 14, 1999 discloses techniques for combining a television signal and a networked chat room capability such that multiple people can communicate over the network at the same time that a television transmission is being received and partially displayed.
United States Patent Application Publication 2003/0101450 A1, Television Chat Rooms, by Marcus Davidsson et al., filed Jun. 17, 2002 also discloses techniques for combining a television signal and a networked chat room capability such that multiple people can communicate over the network at the same time that a television transmission is being received and partially displayed.
United States Patent Application Publication 2003/0233650 A1, Visual Group Interface for Group Connectivity, by Melora Zaner et al., filed Jun. 18, 2002 discloses a technique for creating and participating in ad-hoc groups using a network. Zaner also discloses a group audio play activity that allows group members to listen to audio in a substantially synchronous manner on each group member's computer. Zaner also discloses that every user has full control of the other group members' listening experience.
The capture of commentary audio clips by users or viewers of the herein disclosed technology, and the playback of these commentary audio clips during asynchronous viewings supports social interaction between remote viewers, but also creates open “loops of interaction.” The remote viewers will be motivated to close open loops of interaction through synchronous conversations. The technology described and claimed by the patent applications listed in the “Cross-Reference to Related Applications” and that were filed on Oct. 29, 2004 teach a heavy-weight process to support loop-closing interactions in the variety of occasions when people make contact and engage in casual conversation.
None of this art teaches or suggests, separately or combined, recordation of an information stream selected from portions of an experiential data stream that are associated with commentary audio clips or other commentary clips where the associated clips can be included with the recorded portions of the experiential data stream and presented using contemporary presentation devices or a limited social television system. None of this art teaches or suggests a limited social television system that provides a light-weight process for loop-closing interactions.
It would be advantageous to provide a lightweight technology to package socially-enhanced viewing experiences for convenient sharing to close an open loop of interaction.